Holly’s smile was a wide-open thing of utmost delight. “My grandma made me attend Mandarin school all through my childhood. I used to get so mad because I had to spend my Saturday mornings there instead of watching cartoons.” She spoke the words in a mélange of the three languages they shared. “But as I grew older, I was glad. I can speak to her in the language she used with her own mother. And it’s something special, you know?”
Venom understood. “Janvier speaks Hindi, as does Ashwini,” he told her. “Most of the Seven have an excellent grasp of it, too. Part of it is they’re just old enough to have had the time to learn multiple languages . . .”
“But the rest is because they’re your family,” Holly said, raising her hand to brush her fingers over his cheek. “So, jaanuu, is it time to go? Also, did you know there’s a wolf behind you?”
“He’s just curious about the other predators in his territory. Don’t challenge him with eye contact, but also don’t appear weak.” Venom looked back to let the wolf know they were aware of it. “He wants to make sure we’re only passing through.”
Venom pulled on the pack and got up.
Accepting the hand he held out, Holly used it to haul herself up. “Is our safe house within a distance we can travel on foot?”
“Yes. But we might not make it before dawn.” Holly was weaker than she should be, even with his blood twining with her own. “We’ll have to camp in the forest if there’s any chance we might get caught out in the open.”
“Yes, that would suck after we successfully pulled off the stealth infiltration of an archangelic home.” Tugging the hood of her jacket on over her hair, Holly zipped up the jacket so that her face was neatly framed, her body a sleek black outline. “Let’s do it.”
They began to run, the wolf running alongside them for over an hour before it peeled off to return to its territory. Venom had kept the pace at one Holly could also maintain. She was doing better than he’d expected. Even at full strength, she wouldn’t be as fast as him—but she’d be fast enough to make it fun.
Flying over a log in their path, she turned to grin at him over her shoulder.
He grinned back, and they ran.
Wings flew overhead now and then, and when they did, the two of them crouched low, became motionless. The farther they got from the stronghold, the less Holly’s chest glowed—Venom knew because she’d unzip and check every so often, until, by the time they ran into a small mountain village, there was no wash of acid green pulsing off her body.
Dawn hovered a red line on the horizon, but it was just far enough off that the farmers who ran goats up in these mountains weren’t yet awake. Venom and Holly moved like shadows through the village, not stopping when dogs barked.
They were long gone and back in the forests before anyone so much as twitched a curtain in response to the canine alarm. If anyone had seen them, all they would’ve spotted were two dark silhouettes. Venom had pulled the knit cap back over his hair and made sure to keep his eyes open only a sliver so no one could identify him.
Sunglasses pre-dawn would’ve been a dead giveaway.
Safe in the trees some distance from the village, they stopped so Venom could drink the second bottle of blood, after which Holly would feed from him to continue her recovery. Before that, he gave her the prepackaged food she’d brought along: he never forgot that Holly wasn’t a vampire in the known sense, needed actual food, too. As she munched on a packet of cheese and crackers, he opened the bottle of blood and—forewarned by the last bottle—took a cautious sip.
Pretzels and coffee and roasting nuts.
He laughed. “Ashwini gave me New York this time.” Another home of his heart. He drank it down without hesitation, then kissed Holly again so she could taste it. And so he could taste her.
She licked her tongue playfully against his. “Shall we indulge in wildly-inappropriate-on-the-run sex?”
He sank his fangs into her lower lip, just enough for it to be a sting.
“Ouch.” She did the same back to him and when they drew apart, they were both panting.
“A bed,” Venom said silkily. “I want a bed and time.” The luxury to stroke her softly, slowly, drink her in.
Holly’s breath caught. “Then let’s move it.”
“Feed first.” But he didn’t give her his wrist.
Instead, he did something he never did . . . except with her. He leaned in so she could feed from his throat. Slender fingers curving around the side of his neck, a soft breath kissing his skin, her scent slinking around him like an affectionate cat.
His already rigid cock went stone hard when she sank her small fangs into his vein. To feed her, to care for her, it gave him so much pleasure that he knew he was in trouble beyond anything he’d ever before handled. He cradled her head to him regardless, glorying in the pleasure of the intimate blood kiss.
She took her time, sipping slowly rather than gulping and getting it over with.
When she did end the kiss, it was with a press of her lips against his skin. “Okay,” she said in a husky tone that stroked him just right, “maybe I could grow to enjoy drinking blood in some very limited circumstances.” A nuzzle against his throat. “Will you feed from me?”
Venom shuddered. “When we’re safe.” He wouldn’t take much, the act more about the offer and the acceptance than sustenance.
She nuzzled his throat again, small and fierce and strangely gentle with him. “I want to curl up and sleep.”
“Soon.” Forcing himself to break the skin-to-skin contact, he took a quick breath before rising, tugging her up at the same time. “We’re nearly there.”
They eased their way into a fast run, Holly moving more fluidly after the fresh injection of blood and food. Her distance from the abomination in the crib was also likely helping; the less strength she had to expend on fighting the alien energy from taking over, the more she had for herself.
The two of them made it to their destination just as true dawn cracked the world in spears of burning gold and brilliant red. That destination was a lodge deep within the trees. There were other lodges scattered through the forest, but all were far enough from one another that privacy was assured. Owned by the very wealthy, these lodges were winter homes meant for the skiing season.
The actual runs were a short distance away, which meant the forest around the cabins was thick, cocooning the homes in lush green solitude.
It so happened that the wealthy vampire who owned this lodge was part of Jason’s network of spies. Venom had once asked Raphael’s spymaster—a fellow member of the Seven—how he could be certain that a vampire who’d been so long in Michaela’s territory could now be loyal to Raphael. “Michaela has her moments,” Venom had said, “but she’s not evil for the most part, and she protects the innocents in her territory.”
“She also flays vampires alive and uses their skin to make purses,” Jason had replied, his wings blending in with the night as they stood on a Tower balcony on a moonless eve.
Shrugging, Venom had said, “Aside from that.”
Jason’s eyes had actually glinted with humor, the tribal tattoo that covered one side of his face an astonishing work of fine curves and dots. “Michaela ordered the death of a vampire our ally loved deeply,” he’d answered at last, the humor fading into a cool darkness. “It was not a deserved death—Michaela was capricious in giving the order and though she was apologetic in the aftermath, her remorse couldn’t breathe life back into the dead. Our ally and his lover were together for five centuries and devoted to one another always. He will never forgive Michaela for the loss, no matter how long he lives.”
It made more sense than a non-immortal—or even a young immortal—could ever understand. Love was a gift that came along rarely in their world, especially love so true that it lasted through centuries—that was beyond a gift. It was a treasure.